Editing The Pen Addict 125/transcript (section)

== Rotating Pens ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' So now that pilot has taken a foothold in the collection and some of the rotatings have moved out, are you kind of off the rotating bandwagon for a while? Is there the one rotating you don't have that you're still on the hunt for? Or what do the standings look like in Dudek's office on the pilot versus rotating battle we're having right now?

'''Mike Dudek:''' Well, that's a good question. I don't. I'm kind of at a point where with the rotating, if something comes up, I may buy it. Like I do actually have on order right now a ballpoint, oddly enough, from. Of course you do. Of course you do. It's one. I found a good deal on one of the rotating Lambda. I don't know if you guys. I did a review on the Rollerball Lambda like probably a year or so ago. But it's this kind of weird, obscure. Yeah, like it's this all black, kind of a grippy material, but it has knurling on it too. But it's this kind of strange rotating that you can't really find a whole lot of information about. It's different than the 600s, but I have one of those on order. There is a fountain pen of that I saw on eBay, but they want like $300 for it. And I thought, hmm, probably I'll pass on that one. But the only thing really is if I find it or I stumble upon maybe something I don't have, let's say a 600 that's in a nib size that I don't have that I want to try, or if I get a really smoking deal on an 18-karat gold Rotring 600 or something, I might still jump on it, see if I like it. And then if I don't like it, then I can always get rid of it. So I look at the collecting as a little bit more fluid than maybe trying to fill a slot on a pegboard or something like that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' But so I don't know. So you don't have a problem selling off some of the pens to afford some of the newer purchases, right?

'''Mike Dudek:''' Yeah, not really. I mean, there's some. I have to tell you, there were times when I'd go through my Rotring and I'd pull out, oh, I could part with that one. I could part with that one. And then afterwards, I would put them all back and be like, no, I can't do it. Not today. You know, it's like one of those. But I've kind of gotten to a point where I look at them kind of like the pilots, right? Like I get interested in it and then I try and gather as many of them, obviously for as efficient and for the best prices I can find them, to try them. See what fits, see what sticks. You know, and if over six months I decide, well, you know, I'm not really using that Pilot Custom in the medium nib. So maybe I could let somebody else have that one. Or I could, you know, use that to try a different one or purchase a different one. So it's, I don't know. It's like I'm in this transition. And I don't know if you're like this at all, but it's kind of looking at the pens, not necessarily as a long term. Although there are some, kind of like what Myke was talking about with the Edison. Like I think that that pen that you've bought and you've gotten custom made and there's a story to it, like that's a little bit different. You know, that's almost like a memento of this time in your life. Whereas if I'm just trying out new pens or vintage pens, there's not really a story. There's not really anything that means anything to me other than I want to just experience for the now. And then if I don't like it or I don't use it, then, you know, I can move it on. Let somebody else enjoy it. So I don't know. That's kind of been a transition that I've made over the past, oh, I don't know, probably six months in changing my mentality a little bit about the collection. It's just kind of, I don't know. I like trying to sort of move towards a phase things out that I may not use so much. But hang on to the core stuff that I know I'm going to keep and enjoy for a long period. Does that make sense?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Totally. I mean, I think it's all part of the learning experience. Like some of, I mean, from when I started Fountain Pens, you know, going from I almost like a dislike of fountain pens to a love of fountain pens to narrowing down what I really, really like. You know, it's all part of the whole entire learning process on, you know, figuring this whole fun hobby out. And I got to say, I'm pretty happy with it. So I want to get you out of here on one more thing that I am pretty excited about. And that's your latest offering from Dudek Modern Goods. It's called The Divide. And when I saw this, I was like, I saw the, since I follow you on Instagram, and we'll have all those links in the show notes, you know, I saw kind of the lead up on how this came about. But why don't you talk about this product? Because I think it's going to be probably your most popular thing going.

'''Mike Dudek:''' Yeah. So The Divide. And you'd be surprised how hard it is to come up with like a single word name for a product. That sort of encompasses like all of my products, like Cube, Groove, Block, Divide, Display. You know, it's like, have it sort of describe maybe what it is. But The Divide, yeah. So what it is, there's a little bit of history with this one that I'll give shout out to Tim from The Writing Arsenal, who's also a host of the Erasables podcast.

'''Mike Dudek:''' He and I probably, I don't know, six, eight, or longer than that, maybe like early this year, we kind of collaborated and he was talking about getting a groove. But then he said, ah, you know, he's like, I'm kind of more of a pencil guy, apparently. And, you know, is there something we can, can we kind of customize and work on a little transit, or like change it a little bit, you know, can we modify the design? And of course, I'm like, yeah, sure. If it fits within the general scope of my products, yeah. You know, we can play around and I enjoy doing that. And so we came up with this kind of idea of pencils on one side and then pens on the other. There's this sort of divide, quote unquote, so to speak, right? Because, you know, if you've ever listened to those guys, there's definitely a pencil camp and there's a pen camp. Yeah, there's the graphite and the ink people. Not to say we're like against each other or anything, but...

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. Yes. Tim's the lone holdout. He straddles the line in the podcast. They're starting to kick him off every now and then.

'''Myke Hurley:''' I imagine like a West Side Story style throwdown.

'''Mike Dudek:''' Totally. Tim's a rebel, that guy. He's walking the line. So, yeah, so the divide is kind of a, it's slightly different, a little bit more simplified version of that, of what Tim and I designed, you know, earlier this year. And so it was a design that really stuck with me. And when Tim got it and posted about it, I had a couple people reach out and say, I want exactly that. And so it was just only a matter of time before I actually launched it and released it as its own independent product. So, yep. So the divide is there for you to have your pens, your pencils, your notebooks, and they can all live happily on your desk, you know, without incident, so to speak.